Pleasantville Writer Talks Baseball in Ossining

OSSINING, N.Y. – Pleasantville’s Dennis Corcoran loves baseball and the pageantry behind the game. But what Corcoran said he loves the most is his fellow fans.

After spending more than six years driving 320 miles roundtrip from his Pleasantville home to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Corcoran knew he had to write a story no one else had told. The 35-year resident and historian presented his book “Induction Day at Cooperstown: A History of the Baseball Hall of Fame Ceremony” Thursday at the Ossining Public Library.

“I’ve been asked many times why I drove three-and-a-half hours each way for more than six years to research this book,” Corcoran said. “The answer is simple. I did it because of the fans. It’s the thing that impressed me the most. Baseball has wonderful fans and you don’t hear enough of their stories.”

Corcoran went to Cooperstown for each induction ceremony for six years straight to interview fans and hall of fame players to other baseball historians and experts detailing each step from a player’s retirement to the day that player’s plaque appears within the walls of Cooperstown.

“A lot of people have written about the hall of fame itself and why the players are there,” Corcoran said Thursday. “They wrote about the players and the biographies. But no one had written about the induction ceremonies themselves and the fans who love them.”

Since releasing the book in 2010, Corcoran said he’s been amazed at how much the fans have welcomed his research and given him praise.

“That’s why I wanted to write it,” he said. “I wanted to do it for the dedicated baseball fans out there who wanted to know the same things I did. So it’s really great that people have taken to it so well.”

Newark resident David Lippman, who submitted a review of Corcoran’s book on Amazon.com, wrote that he read the book “every day while traveling to and from work” after first picking it up.

“This is a book serious baseball fans should purchase and hang onto,” Lippman wrote in his review. “It's what I call a ‘universal problem solver’ for the whole hall of fame induction story – who got in, why, whether or not they deserved it, and what happened at the actual ceremony.”

Corcoran said Thursday he loves going back to Cooperstown and may write about it again.

“It’s something special to go to every year and I can’t say enough about the people who travel each and every year just to see their heroes go where they belong,” he said. “I’m really glad I could share something I love with the fans. It’s not about the money to me, it’s about sharing those wonderful stories with the fans out there like myself who just love the game.”

Corcoran’s book currently retails for $39.95 and can be purchased online at Amazon.com.

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